Online Reporter
Fadzayi Maposah
Correspondent
BEST wishes for the New Year.
It is the year 2026 and today is day three of the New Year. Just a few days ago we had begun the count down to the end of 2025.
Within a week we are at the beginning of yet another year. Now we have more than 360 days of 2026 ahead of us. It seems a very long way to go. Life is something else. We may all be living the third day of 2026, but life being life we are at various stages.
I remember the year that I gave up on my marriage (or it gave in or gave up on me, whatever really happened, the bottom line is it ended), I was miserable and always close to tears (sometimes the tears fell) each time I heard that some people were madly in love and were planning to get married.
I just did not get it then that in the midst of my tears and my fights with my then husband, who was to quickly change to being my ex-husband and the in-laws, some of whom openly told me that I would be dead soon after succumbing to AIDS, there were people who were embracing and planning their future together.
As far as my in-laws were concerned, every woman who left a marriage was set to get HIV, which would quickly progress to AIDS and they would die.
Back then I did not answer often. If they had said this to me today, I am sure I would have asked if HIV was an issue for divorced women only, and if it knew that divorced men were off limits? Since you are reading this, I am still alive. My marital status and health conditions are a story for another day.
I am on a break from work. It is good just being at home with no pending documents due for submission. The only documents that I have been working on this holiday break are messages on my phone!
I have learnt that I am not good at resting as I consider myself to be. I think that I have gotten so used to working that I do not really know how to rest.
I may have become obsessed with working and meeting tight deadlines that I just do not know how to stop working. Not seeing emails that give me timelines may have affected me this holiday break! Is it even normal?
It seems this business of working has really affected not me, but many others too. There always seems to be something that needs to be done.
One day this holiday, I was going outside to take in the early morning fresh air and possibly exercise, only to realise that there were some weeds that needed to be removed.
Weeding does not take seconds, slowly the minutes tick away and before I knew it, it was close to an hour, and still I had not covered the area that I thought I would.
The good thing is that in the process I had managed to take in some fresh air and my cheeks had been sun kissed!
Considering my age, my back was telling me that I had just had enough. Like a brave woman, I collected the weeds and put them away in the rubbish pit.
The time that I took outside was more than I had expected, but looking at the area that I had worked on, all I could say is I was happy that I had done the weeding.
After taking a bath, I thought that I would just have my breakfast and then make time to sleep on the couch. As I was about to dress, I observed that my clothes on the shelf were not as I wanted them to be.
I quickly dressed and then began folding them neatly. At the back of my mind I was telling myself that I was doing myself a good thing, putting order on the shelf so that I would not struggle each time I looked for something. The worker within me was up and about! Rest is important. While the busy bee within us may want to work, it is important to make time to just rest.
Sit under some tree and feel the cool breeze and look at the blue sky and see the clouds and imagine that they are some animals or birds. If one looks at the clouds for long, one can see a whole national park!
The problem is that we have been told from a very young age that we should work hard and that sitting for too long is a sign of idleness! Being busy bodies has become part of our DNA, and as a result when we rest, we feel guilty.
There are times that I feel that I glamorise overworking. I just want to rest, but then I fail to completely rest in the end. I take short naps after whatever chores that need to be done.
Our bodies need to rest and when we fail to give the bodies the rest they deserve, they may just give in when we would still be working. This year, may we learn to rest.
Actually develop a rest schedule and do your very best to stick to it. We will feel good and our bodies will thank us for allowing them to rest. Now this resting is not just at bed time, although that too is important.
Sleep time should not just be the time that we rest. Let us start with taking the off days and discussing with our bosses when we will go on leave this year, to rest. Taking a break from work is good for our health.
Since it is still day three, put it on the resolution list for 2026, bold it and underline. Make time to rest!
